Weiss won't use injuries as excuse for slump

February 18, 2013|By Harvey Fialkov, Sun Sentinel

Despite receiving goals from all four lines in Saturday’s 6-5 overtime loss to the Lightning, Panthers coach Kevin Dineen continued to shuffle his lines at morning practice Monday in preparation for tonight’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In an effort to get a slumping center Stephen Weiss going, Dineen placed him with a red-hot Shawn Matthias (two goals and an assist in last three games) and also a revived Jack Skille. It’s the first time that Weiss has been away from Tomas Fleischmann in a long time.

Of course, their third linemate, Kris Versteeg, continues to be sidelined by a chest injury for the third consectuive game, so Flash is with Marcel Goc and Tomas Kopecky. Weiss says he’s completely healthy and won’t use any excuses such as his groin injury and flu that derailed the start of his season.

“Definitely, not,’’ Weiss said of injury-related excuses. “Those are things I’ve dealt with in the past, like good starts. That’s all crap. It would’ve been nice to start the season and not have any issues, you got to work through them.’’

He also adamantly denied that the trade rumor or his pending free agency has anything to do with his slump of having just one goal and three assists in 10 games to go with an uncharacteristic -9 ice rating.

“I feel good, just trying to do the same things I’ve always done and maybe get a bounce here or there to kick-start it. I’m not trying to change much but I feel good physically and got to stick with the same things I’ve always done and it will turn around offensively.

“No, it’s not something I think about. I have a no-move clause anyway so I can’t get traded without the team coming to me first if they wanted to do that, but that definitely doesn’t bother me. I just go out and play and do what I’ve always done here. Just looking to get a bounce here and there and hopefully that’ll kick-start something and we can start building in the right direction.

“I’ve always thought of the team first so when the team is struggling and you’re not producing it becomes double as hard. If we pick up these last two wins it’s a little bit easier but certainly when you’re not producing the way you want to and the team is not doing as well it addes a little bit more disappointment.

“I’ll keep grinding it out and do what I’ve always done and hopefully I can get it turned around myself and we can get some more wins out of it.’’

The ‘kiddie line’ remains the same with Jonathan Huberdeau, who’s tied for the NHL rookie goal lead with six, Peter Mueller and Drew Shore. The fourth line remains Alex Kovalev, Jerred Smithson and enforcer-type George Parros who will probably exchange salutations with Leafs’ toughie Colton Orr at some point tonight.

Goalie Jose Theodore is expected to be in the nets after giving up five goals for the second time in his last three games.

The Panthers recalled center Mike Santorelli from San Antonio today to give Dineen an extra forward with Versteeg sidelined. Santorelli, demoted to the minors to recapture his confidence and scoring touch from two seasons ago, had five points in seven games. He will probably be scratched tonight and possibly play Thursday in Philadelphia.

The Panthers are hoping to avoid a dubious NHL record of losing four consecutive overtimes in a row. Eight teams have dropped three in a row, including Nashville in 2010-11.

Another rare statistic the Panthers would like to stop achieving is losing games when scoring five goals. According to NHL.com, teams are 60-0-3 this season when scoring five or more goals, and Florida has two of the losses. St. Louis lost 6-5 in a shootout against Anaheim.